To polish rice, or not to polish rice
I will never truly be able to understand the sub-continent's obsession with spices. A while ago, it being late by local standards, and my own energy reserves being exhausted, hunger directed me to a little eatery near the hospital. It's one of those roadside affairs, but they maintain some semblance of hygiene, and my stomach was feeling impartial just then.
There's something that doesn't quite altogether fit about a bespectacled, lanky, livejournal user with a goatee, being in a place full of distinctly unspectacled, very burly, non-livejournal users (the HORROR) with beards that would put the Al-Qaeda to shame. Not that it mattered very much, fitting-in has never really been much of a priority.
Dinner might've been uncomfortable, but I managed to revel in the rustic feel to the place. A quarter-kilogram of kebab doesn't taste very bad, even if you are an anti-culturist (forgive the freehand coining). But, alas, the spices. The heartburn. Zantac forever.
Follow it up with green tea, and you feel on top of the world, nevermind the heartburn. Although associated widely with the Chinese, green tea forms an almost integral part of local etiquette here. And I can understand why.
A good word for the natives: Barbaric as they may seem, they are good at heart. A number of them offered to pay for my food - this might be construed otherwise, but I haven't the energy for negativity at the moment.
I allowed myself to dabble in one of my own therapeutic theories earlier. I am pleased to report that it worked quite well. I wouldn't dare share it, for it seems a paradox, yet as with all paradoxes, they make a lot of sense - if you know how to look at them.
Men introduce rules to bring order to their lives. Not following rules thus leads to disorder. People who don't follow the rules are, consequently, bad.
Entropy is the natural tendency of the universe towards disorder.
By not following rules, we tend towards disorder ourselves, thus doing what the universe does, and following the universe's rules.
The universe is superior to mankind, and has been around for longer. Thus, it is those who break the rules of men - and thus follow the rules of the universe - that are actually on the right path.
I flatly refuse to bring order into my life. Good and bad are very relative terms.
If anyone I know ever has twins (preferably identical) during Gemini, I will lobby for them to be named Castor and Pollux. I put no stock in astrology - I just think it would be a cool easter egg.
I wonder if we'll have the 'commensurate' teacher tomorrow. His lectures are interesting. On occasion. If you manage to stay awake through them, that is.
There's something that doesn't quite altogether fit about a bespectacled, lanky, livejournal user with a goatee, being in a place full of distinctly unspectacled, very burly, non-livejournal users (the HORROR) with beards that would put the Al-Qaeda to shame. Not that it mattered very much, fitting-in has never really been much of a priority.
Dinner might've been uncomfortable, but I managed to revel in the rustic feel to the place. A quarter-kilogram of kebab doesn't taste very bad, even if you are an anti-culturist (forgive the freehand coining). But, alas, the spices. The heartburn. Zantac forever.
Follow it up with green tea, and you feel on top of the world, nevermind the heartburn. Although associated widely with the Chinese, green tea forms an almost integral part of local etiquette here. And I can understand why.
A good word for the natives: Barbaric as they may seem, they are good at heart. A number of them offered to pay for my food - this might be construed otherwise, but I haven't the energy for negativity at the moment.
I allowed myself to dabble in one of my own therapeutic theories earlier. I am pleased to report that it worked quite well. I wouldn't dare share it, for it seems a paradox, yet as with all paradoxes, they make a lot of sense - if you know how to look at them.
Men introduce rules to bring order to their lives. Not following rules thus leads to disorder. People who don't follow the rules are, consequently, bad.
Entropy is the natural tendency of the universe towards disorder.
By not following rules, we tend towards disorder ourselves, thus doing what the universe does, and following the universe's rules.
The universe is superior to mankind, and has been around for longer. Thus, it is those who break the rules of men - and thus follow the rules of the universe - that are actually on the right path.
I flatly refuse to bring order into my life. Good and bad are very relative terms.
If anyone I know ever has twins (preferably identical) during Gemini, I will lobby for them to be named Castor and Pollux. I put no stock in astrology - I just think it would be a cool easter egg.
I wonder if we'll have the 'commensurate' teacher tomorrow. His lectures are interesting. On occasion. If you manage to stay awake through them, that is.